What’s the difference between insurance company and insurance agent?

What’s the difference between an insurance company and an insurance agent? Who is going to save me the most money and time?

In episode 26 of #RealEstateTalk, I’m joined by Chase Fontenot with Gibraltar Insurance Services. He’s going to answer some common questions that home buyers have about homeowners insurance. Chase tell me a little bit about Gibraltar Insurance Services and how they are different than Allstate and State Farm.

The difference between Gibraltar Insurance Services and the big name companies like Farmer’s, State Farm, and
Allstate insurance companies is that those companies are what’s called a captive agency. They can only offer one product as far
as homeowners insurance. The insurance companies only have one policy to offer.

With Gibraltar Insurance Services, we have 40 different A rated companies that we can actually write homeowners insurance policies through. We can get you the best possible homeowners insurance option with the best companies and we can get you the best price possible.

Chase that means that when one of my clients have their Spring Texas dream home under contract I can just give you the property address and you can compare homeowners insurance against all these different 40 different companies and figure out which one is going to be the best for their needs. Chase responded “Yes, that’s exactly correct. All I have to do is just get a little information about the home and the buyer and from there I can take it and get them as many quotes necessary to give them the best possible options.”

My other question then is since you can quote 40 different homeowners insurance companies and we’re comparing them against the big brand names like the State Farm and the Allstate is there a price differential in the policies? According to Chase, the companies that he represents typically charge homeowners insurance rates that are less than the rates offered by Farmers and Allstate.

Do other insurance companies offer the same homeowners insurance coverage as State Farm and Allstate?  Will I be able to get the same coverage for less money? Chase says usually when we quote homeowners insurance policy and compare it to a State Farm insurance policy, we are able to get the same coverage if not even better coverage and we can can still beat their rates. The savings vary from a couple of hundred to a thousand dollars a year.

Benefit of Insurance Agents over Insurance Companies is Time and Money. You can place one call to an insurance agent and the insurance agent compares policy coverage and rates for you. Instead of you calling numerous different insurance companies and comparing their rates and products, you can call an insurance agent and have him do the work for you.

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